We are very pleased to present the biographical information for our outstanding faculty:

Julie Kim - Kindergarten Teacher

Julie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Rutgers University. Upon graduation she worked as a legal assistant at a law firm in Dallas, Texas. Since then she has earned her full teaching certificate at The Princeton Center for Teacher Education. Prior to coming to The Willow School, she served as a head teacher at The Albrook School in Basking Ridge, NJ. While at Albrook she served as a mentor teacher to student teachers guiding them in their understanding of educational philosophies and its implementation. Julie has also taken training and is qualified to serve as an AMS School Consultant. As a consultant, Julie is eligible to help schools verify processes and procedures, identify its skills and talents, assist teachers in identifying goals and examining potential areas of growth.

Andy Pruzick - Kindergarten Assistant

Andy has served as the assistant to the first grade teacher for the past two years.  A graduate of Pace University in 1991, Andy held various positions in the field of technology before joining The Willow School.  Andy and his wife, Kathy, have two children.

Amy Swenson- First Grade Teacher

Amy Swenson- Amy has earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Brigham Young in Utah. She has earned Montessori Teaching Credentials having served as head of school and teacher of upper elementary education for a Montessori School in Massachusetts. During her time at The Albrook School she served as Assistant and Advisor to the Head of School. Amy has also taught Preschool and Kindergarten at a local Montessori school. Amy brings with her some thirty years of cumulative teaching experience. She and her husband live in Budd Lake.

Katie Lombardo – First Grade Assistant

Having completed her B.A. degree, Katie is now pursuing her Masters Degree in Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University while serving as associate teacher. Under the guidance of Adele O’Brien, she will broaden her experience and assume more responsibility in the kindergarten class.  Before coming to Willow, she worked as a teacher's aide in special education at the Mary Cariola Children's Center in Rochester NY.

Paul Parker - Second Grade Teacher

Paul brings over thirty years of teaching experience to his current position as second grade teacher at The Willow School. The majority of his classroom teaching has been with primary students in small schools on the northwest coast of Newfoundland, Canada. In addition to his primary teaching assignments, he has taught a variety of specialty elementary subjects including Science, Computer Science, French and Physical Education. Paul has attended the Programme Special de Français at the University of Laval and received a primary teaching certificate from the Ottawa Teachers College, a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and a B.Ed. from Mount Saint Vincent University. Paul was a founding member and field coordinator of the Northern Cultural Heritage Project, which combined scientific research and educational training for Inuit high school students in Canada’s Eastern Arctic. Before joining The Willow School staff, Paul was an alternative education teacher for the Maquatua Eeyou School in Northern Quebec. In this program, Cree students with social and emotional issues pursued academic and traditional studies in both classroom and bush camp settings. Over the course of his teaching career, Paul has done curriculum development projects for the classroom, school and a variety of other organizations including Parks Canada.

Louisa Pitt – Third Grade Teacher

Louisa is a graduate of Milton Academy and Williams College, Cum Laude, where she also served as an environmental studies teaching assistant. She has taught at Greenwich Country Day School and, most recently, at Pine Cobble School in Williamstown, MA. Louisa brings academic strength to the third grade curriculum in science, environmental studies, math, writing, social studies and computer.

Emily Little – Second and Third Grade Teaching Assistant

Emily serves as a teaching assistant for this school year 2007/08. She received her B.S. in Education, specializing in Elementary Education grades K-8, from the University of Delaware. In addition, Emily has earned a teaching certificate in the states of New Jersey, New York, and Delaware. Prior to coming to Willow, Emily was employed as a substitute teacher at Driscoll Elementary School in Wilton, Connecticut.

Carol Fontaine – Fourth & Fifth Grade Language Arts and Social Studies, Fourth Grade Home Room

Carol earned a BFA degree from Pratt Institute and Montessori certification at the Elementary level from The Center for Montessori Teacher Education at The College of New Rochelle. She has also taken advanced academic courses in Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State College. For over ten years, Carol served as head elementary teacher and art teacher at The Albrook School in Basking Ridge. In addition, she has served as advisor to student teachers for both The Center for Montessori Teacher Education and The Houston Montessori Center. Carol has also taken training and is qualified to serve as a School Consultant for the American Montessori Society.

Michael Chodroff- Fourth and Fifth Grade Math and Science, Fifth grade homeroom

Michael Chodroff- Michael comes to the Willow School holding a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers in Communication and Journalism. He completed his post-baccalaureate K-8 teaching certification at Kean College. Currently, Michael is pursuing his MA in Educational Technology. In 2003 Michael was the recipient of the NJ Dept of Education Commissioner’s Distinguished Teacher Award. He has been nominated for the NJ Preserve America History Teacher of the Year Award and the Richard C. Bartlett Education Award. Michael will visit the Galapagos Islands as a volunteer with ELI Abroad teaching computers during the summer of 2008.  Michael lives in East Brunswick.

Suzzanne Mahoney - Science Teacher Grades K - 4

For 12 years Suzzanne was a naturalist in the Morris County Park System, and for four years before that she was a Licensed Practical Nurse.  Most recently she was a teacher’s assistant at Spruce Run School in Clinton, NJ.  As an additional job, Suzzanne will be the director of our summer camp, which will open in July of 2006.  She received her B.A. in Biology from Kean University.

Shannon Downey – Middle School Language Arts Teacher and Reading Specialist

Shannon will have dual responsibilities as a reading specialist and language arts teacher.  She earned her B.A. from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA and has been pursuing a master’s degree in elementary education from Seton Hall University.  Shannon is certified in the state of New Jersey as an elementary teacher and has been both a participant and a presenter at numerous curriculum and reading workshops. Before joining the Willow School faculty, Shannon was a fifth and sixth grade teacher at the North Star Academy Charter School in Newark, NJ. 

Judith Salisbury - Middle School Science Teacher

Prior to The Willow School, Judy was the Science Teacher and the Science Content Coordinator at Wilmington Friends School in Delaware. Previously, she was the Environmental Education Teacher and Coordinator at Lake Ridge Academy in Ridgefield, Ohio. In addition, she has served as the science and environmental coordinators at many institutions, including the Pocono Environmental Center and Oberlin College. Judy has her B.A. in Natural Science from Edinboro State College in Pennsylvania, her B.S. in Secondary Education for General Science, Earth Science, and Environmental Education from Pennsylvania State University, and an M.S. from Miami University, Ohio, in Environmental Sciences.

Liliana Lisbao – Middle School History Teacher

Liliana Lisbao, now in her fifth year at The Willow School, brings sixteen years of experience in educational planning and teaching at the preschool and kindergarten level.  Prior to joining The Willow School faculty, she was the director of The Magic Garden Preschool in Highland Park NJ.  In addition to her role as director, Liliana developed and taught after-school programs in history, art and creative writing for elementary school children.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University.

August Link - Middle School Math Teacher

Prior to coming to Villow, Gus taught math at Wilmington Friends School at the middle school level and is especially versatile in linking math with science. He has also taught in elementary grades at Lake Ridge Academy in Ridgeville, Ohio, the Roanoke City Schools in Virginia, and the Falmouth Public Schools in Massachusetts. He has been program director at Virginia Museum of Natural History, Manomet Bird Observatory in Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in Elementary Education at Antioch College.

Catherine Luborsky - Teacher of French and Spanish

Catherine brings over twenty year of experience in teaching French to The Willow School.  Previously, she taught at the Freie Waldorf Schule Wangen in Germany, the Hartsbrook School in Hadley Massachusets and  the Kimberton Walforf School in Kimberton Pennsylvania where she was also the exchange program coordinator and a mentor to incoming language teachers.  Catherine has taught primarily lower school classes but instructed middle and high school grades for six years in Pennsylvania.  She got her Baccalaureat from the Lycée Victor Hugo in Poitiers, France and studied Russian for three years at the Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Scott Beil - Art Teacher

Scott Beil- Scott has earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from Montclair State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts Education from College of New Jersey. Most recently Scott was employed at the Matheny Medical and Educational Centers the Arts Access Art Education Coordinator and Studio Manager at Matheny Medical and Educational Center, where he was responsible for the creation and implementation for a multidisciplinary art education program for students with severe developmental disabilities. Scott has shown his work at various galleries in NY and NJ, Hunter Times Square Gallery, MFA Gallery, Limner Gallery and Bowery Gallery. He was recently featured as an artist at the MSU MFA show at the White Box Annex in NYC. Scott has received the Somerset Cultural and Heritage Commission Excellence in the Arts Award in 2007. He lives in Chester with his fiancé.

Mark Casey – Physical Education and After School Sports Teacher

Since 2006, Mark has been a substitute teacher and instructor in the after school program at Willow.  He holds a bachelor of arts degree in health and physical education from Kean University in addition to a NJ teacher certification.  Mark has developed and implemented unit plans for grades kindergarten through eighth at the Franklin School as well as Chatham Middle School.  Most recently, Mark has been employed as a manager and personal trainer at Xercise Body Improvement Center in Chester. 

Karen Abrams Hilde - Handcrafts and Architecture

Before beginning her own practice in 1997, Karen worked for a number of architectural firms, including Michael Graves and Associates in Princeton, doing commercial, educational, and residential work. A commitment to sustainable architecture is what initially made her aware of The Willow School, but it was the school's academic philosophy that engaged her. Karen holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art and Planning in addition to formal art training in multiple mediums. Along with her formal architectural training, Karen brings her enthusiasm and love of teaching and her experience in curriculum planning.

Gina Lefferts - Performing Arts

Gina Lefferts graduated magna cum laude in 1978 from Goucher College and Peabody Conservatory. She received her MA in historical musicology from Columbia University in 1984. After many years of teaching, she went back to school to receive certification in the Kodaly method from NYU. Gina has taught music in a variety of settings since 1976. She has taught private piano lessons from 1976 to the present as well as music theory, piano, and music history at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music from 1980-1989. During that time, she also founded a music and movement program for pre-schoolers and coordinated outreach programs into Brooklyn public schools. Gina went on to teach children in grades five through eight at Berkeley Carroll Street School in Brooklyn. In 1993, she moved to Colorado and collaborated with other parents to found a Waldorf-inspired public school in Boulder. She taught at Friends School and then at Alexander Dawson School in Colorado until she moved back to the east coast this summer to begin teaching at The Willow School.

Alice Lynch - Extended Day Explorations Coordinator

Alice Lynch- Alice graduated from Maryland Academy of Dramatic Arts and Theatre in 1984. She has 15 years experience as Assistant Director and Theater Specialist for the Maryland Youth Theatre, Bethesda Teen Company and “Plays for a Living”. She has experience in the birthday and culinary party business. She began her work here at the Willow School as an after school programmer in theatre. She lives in Basking Ridge with her family.

Preschool at Pottersville
Willow by the Brook

Nancy Campbell- Preschool Director and Teacher of 2 and 3 year old classroom

Mrs. Campbell has twenty-five years of experience teaching young children. She was a founding member and director of The Children’s Corner at Liberty Corner, NJ. Under her leadership the program grew and continues to thrive today in her absence. Nancy has also taught at the elementary level. She has a BA from Fairleigh Dickenson University with a Nursery School endorsement. She and her husband are the parents of three daughters.

Julie Swenson - Teacher of the 4+ Class

Julie joins the Willow by the Brook team bringing over 20 years experience as a teacher, early intervention provider, and school administrator. She currently works as a school consultant; assisting educators to use creative instructional methods to meet the needs of all students. Julie holds a BA in Sociology and Education and a Master’s degree in Education.  She is certified as a teacher, social worker, and Supervisor of Instruction. An instructor of Classic Hatha Yoga, she teaches yoga classes for children and families. Along with her husband and two sons, Julie offers educational farm and yoga programs at Soulshine Farm in Randolph.  As a family, they cherish music, arts, and time outdoors.

Peggy Gano- Assistant Teacher of the 4+Class

Peggy graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a BA in Elementary Education.  She completed her student teaching in 2nd grade at Francis Parker School, Chicago, IL.  Peggy worked at Morgan Stanley in New York for 8 years in the Fixed Income marketing department.  Her responsibilities included organizing and overseeing conferences and meetings throughout the country.  For the past 2 years, Peggy has worked for The Mendham Cooperative Nursery School.  She currently lives in Mendham, NJ with her husband, Brad and three children Paige 14, Meredith 12 (currently a 7th grade student at the Willow School), and Billy 9.